Episode 23: The History of Brewing in Buffalo with Ethan Cox

Our city smells like Cheerios!

Buffalo has some iconic sights; if you go on a tour of the city, you’re bound to see the grain elevators and be told of the long history of malting. Of course, one of the main ingredients in Beer is malted barley…therefore Buffalo built on it’s malting industry with beer, right? It’s so much more complicated than that. Brewing beer has been part of Buffalo’s history from the earliest of recorded local history. The problem is that much of Buffalo’s early history is NOT recorded.

There are a handful of historians in Buffalo whom have spent years researching, scouring, reading, digging, and interviewing all the information they possibly can to put together a picture of the rise of brewing in Buffalo.

In this episode, Ethan Cox takes us on a birds-eye view of the Buffalo beer landscape throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Check the links for more information!

About the guest: Ethan Cox

Ethan is one of the founders of CBW, and works as President & chief instigator. He has a long-standing passion for beer and brewing, sparked largely in the mid-1990’s Boston of Sam Adams, Pete’s Wicked Ale, and Catamount. He has been a homebrewer for over 10 years, and has won a few awards along the way, though he doesn’t really compete that much. He is also certified as a homebrewing judge through the BJCP program. In a similar vein, he is accredited in the Cicerone(r) program, at the Certified level.

Along with fellow CBWer Dan Conley, Ethan began writing about beer online at BeerOVision.com before CBW opened. He believes strongly that Buffalo can rebuild its pre-Prohibiton ‘bierkultur,’ which, aside from making awesome beer, is CBW’s mission: we’re here to Embeer Buffalo.

Want John’s water spreadsheets with the Buffalo numbers filled in?

You can find the empty spreadsheets at his website HowtoBrew.com, or sign up for the mailing list on the right and I’ll email you the version with our numbers already plugged in, and suggested adjustments for Burton on Trent and Vienna water profiles.